This Indoor Plant Canopy Trend Is Wild—and Totally Doable

The #jungalow trend started small. Remember our BFFs the succulent and the air plant? Then came the lush fiddle-leaf fig tree—much more high-maintenance, but oh so Instagram-friendly. 2017 was the year of houseplants ev-er-y-where. You weren't living unless you had at least 10 plants in your in house in perfect condition. It may have seemed like that was the pinnacle of the #jungalow trend, but that was before we came across what we are calling the living canopy bed on Instagram. Basically, it's your standard canopy bed—but festooned with beautifully trailing plants. It's the houseplant obsession, taken up a few notches. At first, we wrote off the undeniably magical idea as undeniably unrealistic. But to our total surprise, it's actually doable.

"I would say, yes, absolutely, this is a project a plant beginner can certainly achieve," says Stephen Hill, creative director of Sprout Home. The secret is in the plants themselves. Hill notes that you'll need to choose plants that will a) naturally want to extend up your furniture and b) not mind being brushed up against every so often, like when you're changing the sheets. His recommendations: Philodendron cordatum and Epipremnum (also known as Pothos).

From there, all you have to do is put the vines in the right spot and give them a little encouragement. "Plants can be situated in planters on the floor or on overhead beams or shelves near the bed and directed, as they grow, to cascade over and around it," Hill explains. "Light ties with monofilament or jute can be an almost invisible security to keep the vines in place on the frame until their own natural weight allows them to stay there." For an ultralush look right off the bat, hook a hanging planter right onto the canopy frame and direct the vines from there. (Just double-check that your bed is sturdy enough first!)

If you're thinking, "So what, they're going to die in a week," think again. These plants are the opposite of finicky. "Both Philodendron and Pothos thrive in consistent indirect natural light and prefer to dry a bit in between watering, often only requiring a solid drink of water a bit less than once a week," says Hill. To avoid muddy water dripping all over your duvet, make sure there's something below the plants to catch any liquid. Option one: Stick the plants in basic draining pots and set them on a shallow rimmed tray. Option two: Drop the potted plants inside slightly larger planters (we're partial to anything ceramic) that don't have drainage holes. Option three (by far the easiest): Pot the plants in vessels that have no holes whatsoever. (If you go that route, Hill suggests building in some natural drainage with a layer of gravel and horticultural charcoal and adding no more water than one-third the container's soil volume.) No matter which way you go, one thing is for certain: #jungalow is here to stay.